You Cannot Outsource Life: Severance and Wild Problems

The law of diminishing marginal utility is one of the foundational principles of economics, but its significance extends far beyond the marketplace. The principle states that as a person acquires additional units of a good, the satisfaction gained from each successive unit tends to decline. The first glass of water relieves intense thirst, the second… MORE

How much is international trade costing Americans jobs? It turns out, not much.  A major objection by protectionists is that international trade with other countries, especially low-wage countries, will undermine American workers. As a consequence, there will be a “giant sucking sound” (to use Ross Perot’s phrasing) as jobs are pulled from the United States… MORE

Most discourses about Israel or Palestine are morality plays of good guys vs bad guys. Egyptian-born Hussein Aboubakr Mansour takes a different approach, seeing the conflict as a self-reproducing system of political and economic extraction where Arab regimes, opposition movements, rival states, Western academics, NGOs, and Gulf monarchies like Qatar all convert Palestinian victimhood into… MORE

“Economists have likened free trade to technological progress: although some narrow interests may be harmed, the overall benefits to society are substantial.” The theory of international trade and commercial policy is one of the oldest branches of economic thought. From the ancient Greeks to the present, government officials, intellectuals, and economists have pondered the determinants… MORE

Trade is not just about transactions. It’s about relationships and trust built and earned over time. Just over a year ago, citing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), President Trump began unilaterally changing tariff rates with countries around the world. The goal was to restructure global trade. Since this was the first time any… MORE

On the topic of international trade, the views of economists tend to differ from those of the general public. There are three principal differences. First, many noneconomists believe that it is more advantageous to trade with other members of one’s nation or ethnic group than with outsiders. Economists see all forms of trade as equally… MORE

Nobel laureate Ronald H. Coase (1910-2013) was recorded in 2001 in an extended video now available to the public. Coase’s articles, “The Problem of Social Cost” and “The Nature of the Firm” are among the most important and most often cited works in the whole of economic literature. Coase recounts how he tried to encourage… MORE

Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan (1919-2013) was recorded in 2001 in an extended video now available to the public. Universally respected as one of the founders of the economics of public choice, he is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles in the areas of public finance, public choice, constitutional economics, and economic… MORE

Israel Kirzner, Professor Emeritus at NYU, is among the foremost scholars in the continuing development of the Austrian school of economic theory. He has extended our understanding of the workings of a free society, illuminated the role of entrepreneurs in the process of economic discovery, and shed new light on the dynamics of market forces.… MORE

Introduction Claudia D. Goldin is an American economic historian and labor economist who has dug deep into often-obscure data sources. She won the 2023 Nobel Prize in economics “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labor market outcomes.” One issue she has focused on is the gender gap, both in employment and in earnings. Indeed,… MORE

A tariff is a fancy word for a tax. The term usually refers to import duties, which are fees levied on goods entering one country from another. Import tariffs have been a controversial feature of domestic politics, international diplomacy, and economic policy for centuries. This article covers some of the basic economics of tariffs as… MORE

Economic historian Joel Mokyr’s work explains how ideas and culture generate compounding technological progress that can accumulate and sustain economic growth. For this work, he, along with Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for “having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress.” Joel Mokyr. Photo courtesy… MORE